Love Falls On Us: A Story of American Ideas and African LGBT Lives

Description

In 2009 Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill became a top global news story. Two years later Hillary Clinton declared “Gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights,” but still today there is little consensus on how to advance those rights beyond the United States and Europe. The fact is that international LGBT activism and allies have created winners and losers. In Africa those who easily identify with the identities of the global movement find support, funding and care. Those whose sexualities don’t align so neatly don’t. In this moving investigation, award-winning journalist Robbie Corey-Boulet shows that LGBT liberation does not look the same in Africa as it does in the United States or Europe. At a time when there is a groundswell of interest in LGBT life in Africa and attempts at reversing LGBT rights across much of the “developed” world, Corey-Boulet lays bare past failures. To the extent that there exists a right way to engage on LGBT issues in Africa—and, indeed, worldwide—Love Falls on Us is for those looking to learn what it is. Cover ......Page 1 Half Title......Page 4 About the Author......Page 5 Title Page......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Acknowledgments......Page 8 Introduction......Page 14 Part 1: Cameroon ......Page 26 1: Indomitable lions ......Page 28 2: Do no harm ......Page 44 3: More fear than joy ......Page 62 4: Human rights feeds on horror ......Page 76 5: Love falls on us ......Page 90 Part 2: Côte d’Ivoire ......Page 118 6: Here in the realm of art ......Page 120 7: L’Affaire pédophilie ......Page 136 8: A life for two ......Page 154 9: Winners and losers ......Page 178 10: Brahima du jardin ......Page 194 Part 3: Liberia ......Page 214 11: Everybody will carry their own burden ......Page 216 12: Anti-Liberian, anti-God ......Page 232 13: Let that awareness be created ......Page 248 14: Grown woman ......Page 262 15: Finding our own champions ......Page 278 Selected Interviews......Page 298 References......Page 300 Notes......Page 308 Index......Page 309